This time of year, the presentations at the ASH (American Society of Hematology) Conference become available. Remembering that conference presentations do not go through a full peer review (unlike journal articles), they do give us an idea of what research is being done, and what kinds of results are being seen.
You can access 75 items that mention the word “macroglobulinemia”, here. We’re not suggesting you investigate all of them, but they are certainly available for your perusal.
There are three in particular, though, that you may find of note.
This paper is an interim report on our Canadian BRAWM trial, headed up by Dr. Berinstein. The one-sentence Conclusion section sums it up: “Bendamustine, rituximab and acalabrutinib front-line therapy for WM is safe and well tolerated and initial clinical results show that this treatment induces a high percentage of CR + VGPRs”.
Many patients are resorting to dose reductions of Ibrutinib to manage adverse side effects. This paper reports on somewhat limited, but real-world data following dose reductions of Ibrutinib. From the conclusions, “… ibrutinib DR [Dose Reduction] can be an effective strategy to manage AEs [Adverse Events] while maintaining clinical efficacy”.
Other patients are transitioning from ibrutinib to zanubrutinib, because of side-effects. This paper reports data from such patients a year or more after transitioning to zanubrutinib. From the conclusions, “While limited by sample size and nonrandomized/ad hoc analysis, data suggest that patients may transition from ibrutinib to zanubrutinib without compromising safety or efficacy; long-term follow-up is ongoing”.